Caroline

Today I have been blessed. A certain store in the local mall, C28 clothing, put on a free concert. Due to rain the concert was moved inside a parking structure. C28 is a Christian Clothing company based on Colossians 2:8. Their message is that of not following the pattern of this world, but that of Christ. It was a great event, especially for such a unique setting in a parking garage.

One of the bands that played is called Seventh Day Slumber. This was the third time I’ve seen them perform, the first time being probably around 8 years ago. Part of the bands message is for the lead singer to share his testimony about how God has radically changed his life. This was the third time I’ve heard him speak and without a doubt the most powerful. He shared that the only memories he had of his father were of him beating his mother. At age 9 he broke into his first house and began a criminal lifestyle which landed him in jail on multiple occasions. At age 14 he began using cocaine and did so until attempting to end his life with a lethal dose at the age of 22. He shared that through it all his mother, a devout Christian, had been praying for her son as she watched him slide farther and farther away. She happened to walk in shortly after his overdose and found him convulsing on the living room floor. Joseph shared that it was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, with tubes and wires attached to nearly every part of his body, that he felt the touch of a Father for the first time. He shared that God met him in that ambulance and touched his heart and showed him that his was a life worth living.

Today Joseph is 36 years old, has been married for ten years and has three sons. The very place is he is today is evidence of Gods grace and goodness. He shared that going from where he was, to where he is now, would’ve been impossible without the hand of God.

As he continued to speak he asked the crowd a series of questions. “Where do you find yourself, have you given up hope, are you wondering what reason you have to live?” To married people, “Do you find yourself ready to give up, fed up with your spouses behavior, ready with clenched fists and grit teeth to march to the court house to let a judge end your problems?” From a man that has truly hit the bottom, came a message of hope and healing. One of the most powerful moments of the night came in the middle of their performance. Between songs they played audio clips of letters they have received from friends and fans. One letter read:
Dear Seventh day Slumber
I’m broken and hurting. Yesterday my husband of 18 years left me. Without ever knowing how he was feeling, he decided to leave. I feel rejected and unloved. Does God even love me?
In response to the letter Joseph penned the song Caroline:

Where do I begin? There's so much I want to say to make it easier
Tomorrow's on its way. Do you believe I want to take your painful memories?
I know you want to run away. I know that you can't see tomorrow
Caroline
Let me wipe away your tears, and give you life. Make you feel beautiful again
Caroline
Don't throw it all away. I'm here tonight, to take away your pain.

Yesterday is gone and everything that made you cry has fallen to the ground
I'm here to bring you home. I will always take you back, you haven't let me down

I know you want to run away. I know that you can't see tomorrow
Caroline
Let me wipe away your tears, and give you life. Make you feel beautiful again
Caroline
Don't throw it all away. I'm here tonight, to take away your pain

And when you're feeling all alone and you can't go on….Remember I am here
And when you think you've gone too far, I'll meet you where you are, My arms are open wide

Caroline
Let me wipe away your tears, and give you life. Make you feel beautiful again
Caroline
Don't throw it all away. I'm here tonight, to take away your pain, Caroline

As they closed the show Joseph gave every person standing in the lower level of the Temecula promenade mall parking garage an opportunity to stand before God and give him their heart. To say I’m done doing this for me. “The drugs aren’t doing it anymore, alcohol isn’t enough, the sex isn’t fulfilling anymore, I’m empty and I want to be filled.”

To married people in the audience he said very pointedly “If this is you, take your spouse by the hand and walk forward and place your marriage into the hands of God. Invite the One that created the universe to work in your life and your marriage as only He can.”

I was moved to tears as people flocked toward the stage to meet with God. This wasn’t an alter call for 14 and 15 year old kids to get hyped up on Jesus and caught in the moment. This was a moment in which people of all ages, young and old, husbands and wives took a step forward, from where they are to move into the place that God wants them to be.

God is a God who heals, who delivers and who saves. Please watch this video of the song Caroline. Its written from God’s perspective as he is speaks to HIS child, be it Caroline, you, me or anyone else. Better yet, open it in a different window, hit play and LISTEN to the song while reading the lyrics here on this page.

Play Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hnqApOjl9w

Lots and Lots....

It is amazing to look back on the time line of our lives and compare where we were and where we are now. Well over a year ago I started writing as a means of a release. It gave me some place to vent, to pray and if nothing else, a place to chronicle my journey through life. I started it October 28 2008 and its now a 37 page long running word document that I just keep adding to. Tonight I was reading back over some previous entries and I was amazed at the dramatic change I can see from then to now. Many of them jump out at me but one specific entry was from August 28 of last year, not quite 6 months ago.

I was in the process of building a new ramp and multiple times became worried that I was biting off more than I could chew. I would stand there in the shop and look up at this monster of a ramp and begin worrying that I wasn’t going to be able to do it. I laughed tonight when I read that because I remember sitting there and thinking about giving up on the freestyle thing all together. Six months down the road I’m certainly glad that I didn’t.

I can’t begin to describe how crazy this journey has been and what a ride it continues to be. The latest excitement, upon returning from my trip to the south, has been getting back on the quad and improving my game. Recently I took a step that I’ve been waiting for, for a while and pushed the ramp back to a 72 foot gap. That is the money distance. Nearly all of our shows we will be jumping at a 72 foot gap (the distance between the takeoff and landing ramps) so finally making the push and jumping that distance was a good milestone. The sessions since have gone well (play Video). I've been able to get through all of my tricks and add some new variations. As of right now, I have no more shows scheduled until April but I’m hoping that something comes up and they can use me at least once during the month of March.

In the mean time I’ve been spending a fair amount of time with some friends I met through the local Bible College. They’ve been awesome inviting me to come hang out on campus as well as join them for an off campus bible study. Its been a refreshing change of pace to be able to spend time with people my own age rather than being surrounded by youth all the time. That said however, I’m still working with the youth at Life Church and continuing to build relationships there. Youth ministry is definitely a challenge. I struggle with the lack of discipline at times and those students that just seem to lack respect. Its been a long time since I’ve worked with youth so maybe that is just to be expected but its been a challenge none the less.

That’s pretty much it for right now. I’m filling my days with various web,/networking activities, riding as much as possible and spending time with the youth at church and my new friends at the bible college. There is also a family here in town that has taken me in on multiple occasions and more or less adopted me. They’ve been SO generous over the last few months and are always eager to provide a home cooked meal and fellowship should I find myself getting lonely. As a means of expressing my gratitude I do my best to keep the fire stoked and warm and the kitchen sink free of dishes. Pretty fair trade off if you ask me!

I'll leave you with a couple of videos from the road...
Freestyle tour video
Dancing Quad Rider

On the road...still

This is all so crazy! Two weeks ago I left California thinking I was going to Texas for a freestyle show. I had no clue what was in store but I can definitely say that I'm SO excited to be here. Currently I'm back in Duluth Georgia hanging out at the house of one of the other guys on tour. He has generously opened his home up to us as we are in between shows.

The first show was in Gonzales Louisiana and after that we spent the whole week hanging out here in Duluth. Thursday afternoon we drove a couple hours down the road to Augusta Georgia for our next two day event. The weekend typically goes something like this: Arrive in town Thursday night, check out the venue and spend the evening at the hotel. Friday around noon we usually head to the arena to set up the ramp and practice. This is kind of the most stressful yet most freeing point of the weekend. Every time I hit a ramp on a new setup its a little nerve racking. Granted we're using the same ramp, the same landing and the same quads, but it just still makes you nervous. Additionally we were riding on a cement floor so that made the run up to the ramp a little different. At first it was really tacky and you could accelerate quickly but as the day wore on it became polished and really slick. We didn't have a ton of room for a take off so you really had to be on the gas.

None the less we set up the ramp and I motored around the arena for a bit and finally went for it. First jump was perfect!!! I raised my arm and gave a couple fist pumps as I could breathe a sigh of relief. After that it was game on and I went through my whole bag of tricks and finished off practice satisfied. From there it was back to the hotel.

On show day we arrive two hours before it starts just so the promoter can keep track of us and make sure we're all there when the lights go down. The show starts at 8pm and they dim the lights and begin introductions. Not all shows are done in the dark but this one was and its so fun when they introduce you to tear around the stadium while they've got you in a spotlight. Its way fun and on Saturday night as I was in a bit of a dancing mood I hopped off my quad and busted out the worm. It doesn't work so well in riding gear!

That was the format for both nights and the show went awesome. A couple highlights were the pit party on Saturday before the show. Fans had an opportunity to come to the pits and meet all the athletes and take photos etc. It was a lot of fun and I love meeting the kids that are too shy to come up and say hi. Another funny thing was my debut of the "Cha Cha Slide." The promoters have rather interesting music played before the show starts and upon hearing the beats drop I wandered out onto the floor and busted out my best moves for the nearly 5000 people in the stands. It was hysterical and I didn't really know what I was doing but the crowd got into it and the promoter even told me I had to do it again the following night. I'll have video soon!

Lastly kind of the icing on the cake was getting a photo in the local Augusta Chronicle. A kid brought the paper to the pit party to have it signed and I was totally blown away. Such a neat blessing to have some added exposure and get my name and picture put in the paper. I ordered a few copies today so I'll post it up here when I get back to Californioa and get the paper.

The photos I included are of the pit party and our set up for the show.

New Heights

So last Monday I got a phone call from our team manager..."I need you in Dallas asap to train for a couple days and then ride a show in Louisiana this weekend." My first thought..."cool." After I hung up..."crap! I've got to deliver!"

Everyday since coming to California has been an adventure and each one seems to be more exciting than the one before. I hopped aboard a plane for Dallas and arrived at our team's facility at the Moore's house in Krum, Texas that night. HUGE thanks to Wade and Michelle Moore for letting a complete stranger show up, stay in their house and raid their pantry! :)

I arrived Tuesday night and learned that Wednesday was to be our day for practice. Around 11am the bike I was to ride showed up and I was informed it had been crashed a few days prior. One of the wheels was about to fall off and no one really knew what was wrong with it. After 2-3 hours of working on it I felt I had it fixed for the most part and decided I'd take a run at the ramp. Apparently it was "fixed" all too well and I managed to over jump and miss the landing. I got a lovely little mark above my eye for my trouble.

With no time to worry about getting it looked at, I reared around and hit the ramp again, this time a tad slower. The rest of practice went pretty soundly. No more crashes and I was able to get through my whole progression of tricks.

Thursday was spent in the truck driving to Baton Rouge Louisiana. Upon arrival at the arena Friday afternoon I really began to get nervous. While the bike was running great, it was still semi unfamiliar and I was going to be jumping to a metal landing ramp instead of dirt, another first. Additionally the ramp we were using was a little different then what I'm used to (hence the over jumping).

The promoter was great and let me scoot the ramp up close to the landing and work my way back. After about 20 min we were jumping at show distance which was 65 ft. Practice was good and I actually like the metal landing. Afterwards it was back to the hotel to wait for the show to start at 8. The down time would've been nice but it was just more time to sit and think about doing everything right. Not going to far, not coming up short. I wasn't so much worried about my tricks, or the people in the stands for that matter. I just wanted to have the distance down.

Show time rolled around and it went off without a hitch. We ended up doing three shows Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. The only hickup was when I managed to wheelie over on myself in front of a couple thousand people. Not a big deal, just hurts the pride :) But everyone said that its normal to have some sort of a crash at your first show. Another fun bit was that a great friend of mine from my church in Hood River was able to come to the show. He lives in Louisiana now and actually was only about ten minutes from the arena so that was great to have him there for my first show.

I titled this blog New Heights for a couple of reasons. Obviously doing a show is a new thing and was my goal in moving to California but this weekend I learned to rely on God in a new, deeper way than ever before. SO much was out of my control this weekend. I didn't know what I was getting into or what to expect. There were frustrations at some points along the way and a lot of unknowns. I just kept calling and texting folks asking them to pray for the show and the whole weekend and it was amazing. I keep having to relinquish control and trust that God has me here. I'm having a blast, I enjoy the people I'm with on this tour but every day is seemingly another unknown. We're heading to another show this weekend in Georgia and I'm just trying to give God every day and say "this is where you have me." All I can do is trust that He will continue to sustain me and continue to provide as I'm on this journey.

Thank you so much to my friends, family and supporters that have been behind me on this journey. It'll be exciting to see what comes along next!!!

God has a sense of humor...

I've been compiling a list of the different restaurants in the area that I plan to visit once I secure a more stable income and am again able to afford "going out." Temecula is a cesspool of fine eateries which is a luxury I've really never been afforded. Try not to laugh, but recently I've had a craving for the Olive Garden. I've always been a fan and have been looking for an excuse to go back, but because I'm watching finances VERY carefully I've held off.

This morning upon arriving at the church office I hada peice of mail waiting for me from a dear friend from college. Inside was a check and a gift card to the Olive Garden. Her attached note said "Olive Garden lunch menu-Soup, Sald, Breadsticks...All you can eat $6.99....Enjoy :)"

I am so blessed by her gift and equally amazed at Gods sense of humor. I continue to be made more and more aware of Gods attention to detail. The countless childhood dreams I've had fulfilled since coming here, Gods provision through the support of friends and family and countless other opportunities the Lord has blessed me with.

A lot has been going on as of late so here is a breif summation: I'm now riding a new quad as the team is sponsored by Polaris. I'm officially a member of the Bomb Squad Freestyle Motocross team which is something I've dreamed about since I saw my first ATV film in probably the 5th grade, but never once thought would actually happen. I'm beggining to book shows for the coming months which is exciting and a bit nerve wracking at the same time. I continue to practice almost daily and work to get more and more comfortable on the quad.

An encouraging piece of info is that I've been spending some time riding with one of our other team riders from Costa Rica. He's been very encouraging about my riding and is confident that I'm ready to do shows. That has been a huge boost coming from someone who has been a member of this team for over a year.

Lastly, I've met a group of young adults from the local bible college here in Temecula and they have welcomed me with open arms. Some great relationships are being formed and I"m SO blessed to have people my own age and in the same place in life as me to spend time with.

At last

At last, an update. I’ve been on the go none stop since arriving back in sunny southern California and things don’t look to be slowing down any time soon. The first few days back were spent fixing the driveline in my truck, again big thanks to my buddy Adrian for all his help, working on quads and learning my new task as a web administrator of sorts for H Bomb Films.

I’m currently interacting with fans, posting blog updates and have even created a press release or two for. Additionally I maintain the company’s Face Book page. I’m having a blast and slowly getting the opportunity to answer fan questions and essentially act as a liaison between the fans and the company.

Riding has been going well. I’ve only ridden twice since I returned but both sessions went exceptionally well. I managed to learn a few new tricks but have no photos yet to include. Basically two of them involve coming completely disconnected from the quad in mid air and then pulling yourself back on just in time to land. It’s a CRAZY exciting feeling to land one of those for the first time. I have a few exciting things in the works in terms of riding but I’m going to keep that under wraps for a little while longer.

I continue to serve with the youth at Life Church and have begun leading worship on Sunday mornings. Additionally I had the opportunity to teach last weekend and shared a message about how events in life can leave us scarred, but how we choose to heal from those injuries determines how bad the scar will be. We can choose to wear those scars as reminders of injuries we’ve sustained from the past that we’d much rather forget, OR as examples of Gods grace and forgiveness in our lives.

That's it for now...I'm working on a more thought provoking update but its not quite coming out right.

Reflections

I love coffee shops. The atmosphere, the people, the sounds, it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I found a cool new one in Gresham Oregon called Café Delirium. It’s the perfect setting and brings in quite the diverse crowd. There are students working on homework, girlfriends chatting away about life, friends back for the holidays catching up, and more than one “couple” out on a coffee date. I love the diversity and atmosphere that it creates. I think what I love most is that nearly everyone has a smile on their face because most everyone that comes here wants to be here. Like me, they simply enjoy the atmosphere or they have an opportunity to catch up with special people in their lives.

I’m here because this is my office. I love to come to a coffee shop and sit and get work done. Thankfully for once in my life I’m self employed (if you can call it that), and praying that I can continue on this path. I’m also meeting a friend to catch up on life. This entire break has been nothing but visiting and catching up with people that have, in some way shape or form, impacted my life. It started the night I flew home with dinner with the fam and then vising with my small group from my church. What a blessed time of hugs, fellowship and crazy stories about this new life of mine. It was such a joy and one of my highlights was Janet Clark, one of our leaders, telling me “This is what I love about Seth, he knows how to eat.” How does one respond to that except to smile and dig in. Their family and so many others in my church came into my life at a time when I was hurting and needing fellowship the most. It was such a joy to go back and visit with them.

I had an opportunity to visit Jake, my best friend and partner in crime from the glory days of highschool. Its always a joy to hang out with him and it’s a blessing to see the continued progress he is making at his goal of walking again someday.

I got to visit my co-workers from the bank. What a FANTASTIC time that was. It took me at least two hours to make my rounds between the various offices and buildings to catch up with everyone that has been such a support of me over the last months and years.

On to Portland I visited with friends and family’s that have graciously taken me in and fed me, invited me on family outings and seemingly consider me one of their own. Its been such a blessing to see familiar faces catch up on life. The best, most humbling part of it all is to receive the love and support of people that are truly excited about what I’m doing with my life. Everyone is excited for me and I continue to be so blessed by the support of friends and family that want to see me succeed in this calling that God has placed on my heart.

As I finish up here and prepare to fly back home to California I’m excited but somewhat scared at the same time. Things are happening. I’m beginning to get asked to do ATV shows, things are in the works for me to begin speaking at various events and seemingly all the things I’ve ever dreamed of are beginning to come true. Its nerve wracking but awesome and I continue to cry out to God daily asking him for peace, perseverance and strength to continue on this road that he has laid before me. While its sure to be an exciting ride, I’m trying to live and trust Him one day at a time…I don’t have enough in me to look any further than that!